Cute, little devil!

Introduction: “It is notable that nearly all the poisonous fungi are scarlet or speckled and the wholesome ones brown or grey, as if to show us that things rising out of darkness and decay are always most deadly when they are well dressed.” Ruskin

Some say that if you believe in the devil, you never grew up.

Yet someone else said, “Belief in a personal Satan is part of mankind’s nursery furniture.”

While others hold to the belief in a quasi-devil who is really not as bad as everybody makes him out to be.

Many folks picture him as a red-suited, pointed-horned, long-tailed, fun-loving cartoon.

The Bible, however, does not take the devil lightly, nor is it unclear about his existence or evil intentions.

Jesus acknowledged Satan and often spoke of him (Matthew 25:41; John 8:44)

“Satan” is found 55 times in the Bible (19 in Old Testament; 36 in New Testament).

“Devil” is found 59 times and all of them in the New Testament.

Every Christian is a soldier in the Lord’s Army and as a soldier we should now our enemy. There are two major enemies, the first is the Devil and the second is ourselves. Today we shall analyze the first one only.

His nature: What is Satan like?

He is a slanderer! (Job 1:7-8; Psalm 109:6)

“Devil”-slanderer or accuser.

He slandered Job, but we should take heart, God defended him.

When Satan accuses us as Christians before God, we should remember that Jesus defends us as our Advocate in heaven.

A faithful Christian’s case is in good hands (1 John 2:1-2; Romans 8:31-39; Revelation 12:10)!

He is a counterfeiter of God (Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15)

He seeks to confuse us, and the easiest way is to duplicate-with significant but hard to notice changes-God’s creations.

He wants to destroy our possessions in hopes of destroying us (Job 1:13ff) (trust)

He hinders our spiritual work (1 Thessalonians 2:18) (persevere)

He seeks to make you proud (1 timothy 3:6-7) (resist)

He persecutes (Revelation 2:10) (withstand)

When we sin, he accuses us to discourage us from doing the right thing (2 Corinthians 2:6-11), and he never gives up (Luke 4:13) (go on)

Conclusion:

In an ancient legend Satan summoned his top three aides to a planning session. One lieutenant, Rancor, said, “Let’s convince them there is no God.” Satan sneered, “That won’t work. They know there is a God.” Another aide, Bitterness, spoke up. “We’ll convince them God does not really care about right or wrong.” Satan toyed with the notion, but rejected it because he knew that too many already know He does care. Malice came with his idea. “We’ll let them think there is a God and that He cares about right and wrong. But we will keep whispering ‘there is no hurry, there is no hurry.’” Satan howled with glee and promoted Malice.

Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, but people who reject Christ and believe Satan’s lies will suffer there with him (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:11-15). Do you need to make preparation to avoid spending time with the devil? God requires faith, repentance, confession, and baptism (Acts 8:35-40). One must remain faithful to Christ in order to avoid returning to the devil’s ways (2 Peter 2:20-22; Revelation 2:10).